The 14th Landscape Forum of the LE:NOTRE Institute was hosted by MATE, the Hungarian University for Agriculture and Life Sciences, in Budapest, Institute of Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning and Garden Art, in collaboration with the NGO kultúrAktiv. The full forum publication, published by MATE, can be accessed here.
The Forum 2025 took place from June 18 – 21, 2025, and focused on the Danube Bend Region. The forum included a creative mix of workshops, excursions, debates, keynotes, round tables, and exhibitions. This year it also hosted a multiplier event of an ongoing ERASMUS+ Project: OLA – Open Landscape Academy. The forum works according to the principles of the Council of Europe Landscape Convention, celebrating this year 25 years since opening for signature in Florence in 2000.
Landscape Forum Main Topic and Working Groups
The Danube Bend (in Hungarian: Dunakanyar) is a curve of the Danube in Hungary and gives its name to a 40-60 km stretch from Esztergom to Budapest. This region is extremely rich in natural and cultural heritage, and thanks to this, it is also very important from a recreational and tourist point of view. At the same time, the Danube Bend region is a transforming and developing area; therefore, the cultural and natural heritages are under pressure from suburbanization. The landscape of the Danube Bend represents high relevance for the forum’s focal and cross-cutting themes.
This Forum publication, published by the Hungarian University of Life Sciences (MATE), presents the Outcome Statement based on the thematic working groups on Envisioning Resilient Urban peripheries: Living Streets, Foodscapes: Imagining Vác’s Zero-km Local Food System Transition, Towards a Living Landscape Biography , Sustainable Peri-Urban Mobility Strategies for the School Campus in Vác, and: Democratic Nature Experiences Along the Danube in Vác Through the Child’s Eyes.
Keynotes that inspired the Forum Process were held on celebrating 25 years of the Council of Europe Landscape Convention; Sensing a Changing Landscape: Artistic Approaches and Local Ecological Knowledge in Landscape Transformation; and /Re/Constructed Urban Situations – The Role of Durational Art Strategies and Community Engagement in Urban Generation. In each thematic chapter there is a report on the site, the Main Aims and Research Questions, The Working Process of the Team, Goals, Vision, Strategy, and Proposals and Suggestions for Further Activities. The report also presents the Exhibition-Cornucopia, organised by the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, in collaboration with the Hungarian artist Kund Kopacz, that took place in parallel to the forum. The full publication, published by MATE, can be accessed here.
More information on the results of the international student competition on the Danube Bend and the thematic topics can be found on the website of the LE:NOTRE Forum.
